“The plane was three kilometers off-course after it had been handed over to Slovakian air control, disappeared off the radar screen at 19:38 and crashed from an altitude of about 3,500 meters into a hill and immediately caught fire.”

“He called me around 7.30pm on Thursday evening and said that his plane crashed somewhere in the forest and asked me to alert the rescue services and police before the line went dead. Which meant the team got there after two hours instead of 40 minutes only.”